If you practice safe sex, the IRS has some good news: Condoms now qualify as an itemized deduction.
When the IRS recently announced new tax brackets, standard deductions and other important items for the 2025 tax season, it also issued Notice 2024-71. It says condoms for a taxpayer, spouse or dependent now qualify as a medical expense and can be deducted if you itemize and your medical expenses exceed 7.5% of adjusted gross income (AGI) for the year. AGI is total income minus deductions, or “adjustments” to income that you are eligible to take.
Previously, condoms as an itemized tax deduction were on a case-by-case basis. “You had to prove you had a medical reason such as not spreading a STD (sexually transmitted disease) rather than just as a contraceptive,” said Richard Pon, a certified public accountant in Northern California.
Condoms have been reimbursable for years through a pre-tax health savings account (HSA) or flexible savings account (FSA), which cover over-the-counter medications that aren’t generally tax deductible as an itemized deduction.
Condoms are only one of many medical-related expenses that qualify for a tax deduction, Pon said. Some listed below aren’t new but may be little known, he said.
More tax-deductible medical-related expenses
- DNA collection kits if used to obtain health care information, not ancestry information. This is suggested in a 2019 private letter ruling (PLR) for a taxpayer asking the IRS for clarification on the tax treatment for…
